Just a question here.....why not bore instead of ream? I've done both
in poly and have found that boring is worth the trouble. Reaming tends
to be inaccurate due to polyethylene flexing under the cutting teeth.
Also poly tends to make long stringy reaming chips which can pile up
and be be re-cut/roll under the teeth which bunges up the quality of the
hole in these sizes. I find that when reaming thick material at 1" dia
I can get about 3/4 of an inch in while the chips exit the reamer well
then I either have to back out because they start piling up or do some
other monkeying to keep things going.

Oh yea...you have to take a pretty good bite with polyethylene or the
reamer will expand the hole and skate instead of cut (or have things
razor sharp)

Koz

Grant Erwin wrote:

This should be done, or at least finished, on a cylindrical grinder IMO.

Grant

GMasterman wrote:

Anyone ever cut down a reamer shaft? I've got a 1" reamer that I need
to be
able to hold in a half inch chuck to ream polyethlylene. Tailstock is
M2 and
the reamer was not availiable in anything less than M3. By the time
I added a
M3 to M2 to a M3 reamer, it would be too long. Shaft is not real
hard, file
will cut the surface. Ideas?